"Vestnik RHD” is a long-living publication among Russian magazines. It is the oldest Orthodox magazine, with a focus on theology, religious philosophy, literature, public thought, and the history of the Russian emigration.
The first issue of "Vestnik" was published in Paris in 1925 with a print run of 300 copies. In its early years, "Vestnik" was the organ of the Russian Student Christian Movement : it reported on the life of the Movement, developed its ideology, and its editors followed the martyred fate of the Church in Soviet Russia. Starting in the 1970s, the magazine ceased to be the official organ of the Russian Student Christian Movement in the strict sense, though it remained closely connected to the Movement. In 1974 (with the double issue 112-113), this change was reflected in its name: following the suggestion of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, the word “student” was removed from the title of the magazine.
On the pages of "Vestnik", outstanding figures of church thought, Russian literature, and world humanities have been published. Among the authors of the magazine, you will find the names of Nikolai Berdyaev, Mother Maria (Skobtsova), priests Sergei Bulgakov, Georgy Florovsky, Vasily Zenkovsky, Nikolai Afanasyev, Alexander Schmemann, John Meyendorff, Alexander Men, Pavel Adelgeim, Vladimir Zelinsky, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, Vladimir Veidle, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Sergey Averintsev, Olga Sedakova, Georges Nivat, and many others. For many years (from 1952 to 2016), the editor-in-chief of the magazine was literary historian Nikita Struve (from 1952 to 1969, together with Ivan Morozov), who shaped the current appearance, format, and direction of the magazine.
The editorial team of the magazine has almost always been scattered across the centers of the Russian emigration. For many decades, the official place of publication was Paris (with a brief post-war move to Munich and back). Since issue No.169, Vestnik has been published by the legendary Parisian publishing house YMCA-press. In the 1990s, the print run was produced in Moscow, and since 2000, the magazine has been published in collaboration with the Russian Path publishing house. In 2023, Vestnik returned to its "historical homeland" – Paris. The editor-in-chief of the magazine is literary scholar Tatiana Viktorova.